The UK communications regulator Ofcom has published its final codes of practice under the Online Safety Act, setting legally binding requirements for platforms to protect children from harmful content including child sexual abuse material, grooming and other exploitation. The codes require services to implement age assurance measures and take proactive steps to detect and remove illegal content, with consultation on enforcement beginning immediately and compliance expected within three months of parliamentary approval.
Platforms facing blanket age-assurance mandates confront a structural challenge: every user, including adults, must surrender identifying information to prove age, yet compliant adolescents are merely displaced to unmonitored channels while predatory users migrate with them. Guardii's real-time detection modules for grooming, sextortion and CSAM intercept the harm itself at the point of contact, flagging hostile approaches before they reach the child and surfacing a victim in crisis to the responsible authority, addressing the underlying risk without requiring universal identity verification or restricting legitimate access.
